Conservation of Energy
Summary: Apparently, one of the most effective ways of keeping warm is sharing body heat.
For survival purposes, of course.
Pairing: Rayla/Callum
Rating: Teen And Up
“Couldn’t you have connected to the S-sun arcanum or something?” Rayla huffed, hood pulled low over her face as she cradled Stella under her cloak and slowly put one foot in front of the other. The snow was at least hard and compacted here, making progress somewhat easier than the deep drifts of yesterday.
“Well, maaaaybe if someone hadn’t upset my f-future aunt-in-law I could have asked her for some pointers.” Callum grinned despite the clear shake in his voice. He was using his staff for support, but even so, he looked to be struggling.
“That wasn’t all m-me…” Her teeth chattered and her hands felt numb. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she tried to push the thoughts of the last time she felt so bitterly cold from her mind, an image of Finnegrin flashing before her eyes before she pushed it away.
“We s-should find shelter for the night.”
The mirth had left Callum’s voice, and she opened her eyes to find him watching her, a concerned look on his face.
AO3 Link: Conservation of Energy
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[21 April - Taurus]
Janusz Bodanowicz is our fun-loving mechanic and ride-or-die supporter of his lover, Nate Prince. Whether a singer in a choir as a side character, or the main love interest and alpha companion in Underline the Blue, Janusz' upbeat approach to life matched with his high capacity for empathy and intelligence, has made him a rockstar, especially when up against characters who are struggling against trauma.
'I want you. I want you. I'm not walking away. I'm not going to walk away from you, Nate. I'm not going to leave you somewhere. I'm not going to make you leave if you don't want to leave. I want to look at you. I want to talk to you. I want to hear everything you have to say. I want to read your poetry. I want to help you. I want to be there for you, and hold you, and make your pain go away. I want to help you. I want to go on long drives with you. I want to sit on the beach with you, and watch sunsets with you, and tell you about my day, and listen to you about your day. I want you, Nate, I promise.'
Underline the Blue
Falling Falling Stars: Janusz first appears as a member of a queer choir that Efnisien joins. He's the tall, cheerful, friendly boyfriend of the sour and off-putting Nate Prince. Helpful without being a pushover, upbeat without being naive, Janusz navigates Nate's and Efnisien's difficult chemistry with ease.
Underline the Blue: Janusz steps up to be the main character as an alpha companion assigned to a shattered omega, Nate Prince. In Underline the Blue, Janusz gave up being a mechanic to help omegas become genuinely healthier, but he's not prepared to deal with the level of abuse Nate has suffered through, and becomes determined to do all he can to help Nate through the hell he's going through, falling in love along the way.
29 years old (at least in Underline the Blue) with dark brown hair in an Ivy League crew cut, and grey eyes. He often wears stubble, but not a beard. He's tall (and is often taller than many alphas in Blue) but lanky.
Pragmatic and insightful, Janusz often deliberately picks cheerfulness as a way of orienting to the world, and is fully aware that some people can find it grating. He's a lot more intelligent than many people give him credit, and he prefers it that way.
In Underline the Blue, Janusz wanted to be a mechanic, but his parents made him do a university degree first. He ended up - on a whim - choosing omega theory and ended up extremely invested in omega activism. He was selected to work at Hillview Rehabilitation Facility due to his exceptionally high capacity for empathy, and his ability to quickly 'access' the mindsets of most omegas.
Prior to Nate, every omega that has stayed with Janusz has graduated within about 3-9 months, which gives him the fastest track record in Hillview's history.
He is supervised by Temsen Ohlo Ohlo
He's aware of kink and BDSM practices
In Falling Falling Stars, Janusz chides Nate for being petty and childish, when they're all spending time together at a sushi train. As a result, Nate apologises and softens slightly, and this allows them to continue to stay connected.
In Underline the Blue, (this one currently has only happened in early access - chapter 15) Janusz takes on Temsen, and Hillview, calling him out for doing a terrible job and representing an institution that - in that moment - has utterly failed both Nate and Janusz. Temsen, recognising that Janusz is right, yields immediately, and says nothing, leaving Janusz to bridal carry Nate out of the medical suite, representing a big turning point in his relationship with Nate and with Hillview.
In all stories so far, Janusz is always with Nate, and Nate is always recovering from PTSD. That might change one day, but so far that's followed through!
Janusz' personality has stayed the same. Honestly, almost nothing needed to change transferring his personality from Falling Falling Stars to Underline the Blue. As a result, I see Underline the Blue as a more exaggerated telling of the foundational story that is hinted at in Falling Falling Stars.
Janusz is an adept mechanic and loves fixing up cars, as well as going on long drives. The only part about this which has changed is that in Blue he's no longer being paid for it.
Janusz and Nate were originally envisaged as a real life manifestation of the 'someone will die...' 'of FUN!' meme. But as I continued to write Janusz, he developed into a fully formed character who is mature, intelligent, and lives a goofier life because it makes him happier to do so. He's a lot more insightful than he sometimes seems, and is happy to seem less well-informed while he gathers information. He can be calculating, and what seem like spontaneous decisions are often thought out well in advance.
His surname Bodanowicz should be spelled Bogdanowicz, but as he's the child of Polish immigrants, his surname was Anglicised to be 'easier' to spell. He has always found this hilarious because the 'wicz' still throws people off anyway.
He loves baking, and is very good at it.
'The truth is that my parents were really strict about me going to university. They wanted me to have the education they didn't, and university is important in like…my extended family. I was all for becoming a mechanic, ready to get an apprenticeship and drop out of school, and my parents put their foot down and said if I really wanted to be a mechanic, I could do it after a degree. And being the mischievous shit that I am, I decided to go into Omega Theory so I could become a companion and fuck hot omegas.'
Underline the Blue
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Absolutely love your blog! If you're still taking Jaehaera/Aegon III requests what about one where they're in a secret relationship and are keeping it from their families but some shenanigans ensue (maybe they snuck out or something, or someone walked in on them kissing?) and they're somehow discovered? Also please overprotective father Aegon II because yes!
(Preferably an AU where the Dance happens later?)
The gathering in the room feels like a court of thorns, and Jaehaera feels as if she is going to hurl. Standing by her family with her grandmother looking at all around with hawk eyes, she feels if something is about to implode. Aegon had been taken from her side to his mother’s, Princess Rhaenyra. The heiress to the Throne had been most wroth, her, her husband, and her sons waking in the middle of the night for this… issue.
The worst of it all, Jaehaerys had been still laughing with damn near tears in his eyes while telling what he witnessed. She had begged him to leave it be, but then he and Aegon got into an altercation, and now… Ugh!
“So I enter her room because I left my book there—” he looks at Princess Rhaenyra and her family, particularly Aegon. “It was my room once too, do mind— and what do I see if not Aegon the Younger pining my sister against her own closet? The closet, grandmother. He didn’t have the mind to get her against a bed.”
She’s going to choke him.
“Oh, fuck off,” Aegon yells at her twin. “As if she hasn’t told me about you becoming a damn near Rosby stableboy in your visits there—”
Princess Rhaenyra pushes him back to his half-brothers, the lot of the brown haired boys holding their brother of nine and ten, yet only his father manages to stare him down. On the other hand, her father had been gritting his teeth beside her, while mother held onto Jaehaerys’s forearm in warning. Alicent gives her twin a pointed look.
“Mind your words, Jaehaerys,” she says, and turns to look at Rhaenyra and her family. “Prince Aegon, would you mind explaining how you came into my granddaughter's rooms?”
Aegon licks his lips, and Jaehaera swallows. The story is longer than both of them would be able to admit. Despite the blood feud of the families, they had managed to talk last year at the ball for her and Jaehaerys five and tenth nameday. Even went on a joint ride with Morghul and Stormcloud, and before he left for Dragonstone, they decided on a day to meet again at the Kingswood. Such meetings repeated. They could only afford a day a moon, but those days were all so sweet. Did she do anything wrong? Yes, had been the objective answer, but she couldn’t care for it.
And here he is, in her very own home. They could hardly speak by their family, how could she not ask for a moment of privacy?
Rhaenyra rubs her temples. “Things like these happen at this age, Alicent,” she says. “You are stressing Jaehaera and Aegon both.”
Alicent furrows her brows. “Oh, these things do happen at this age, don’t they?” she asks, glaring. “We had known since we were her age how reputation matters in finding marriage. Your son is three years her elder and should know not to fiddle with a noble girl’s corset strings at the hour of the bat.”
Jaehaera feels some tears well up in her eyes. She doesn’t care for the embarrassment of being caught by now, but this makes her feel a fool. It had been nothing insidious, was it? They hadn’t even kissed until they celebrated the new year. She hadn’t lost her chastity, either. It is not just…
“He came into those rooms because your granddaughter let him in, Queen Alicent,” Prince Daemon says. “You should mind her doings before you lay judgement on my son’s.”
Jaehaera’s father had been standing quiet for the longest while, but with that he flares. “Men had been sent to the wall and got castrated for less, Uncle. If you don’t like my mother’s judgement, perhaps I should see to it?”
She holds onto her father’s arm. Please, let this stop.
Daemon eyes him dangerously. “See to your own misgivings,” he says. “Your own son laughs at your daughter's.”
“Father, please,” Jaehaera says, when Aegon the Elder tries and almost manages to escape her grip. Her mother and brother come quickly beside them. Her mother stands in front of her father and puts a hand on his chest, warning, while Jaehaerys comes to Jaehaera’s side, a wroth smirk thrown at their grand-uncle’s way.
“I am laughing at my sister’s choices, grand uncle. At least if it had been Viserys, he has my aunt’s pretty face,” he says, backing their father for once. They often argue, but at times they work together, they prove they’re made of the same cloth. “The Seven had laughed at Aegon giving him yours.”
Daemon starts stepping towards them. “You think you are a jester, you defected—”
Prince Jacaerys comes against his step-father to stop him from coming forward, the same ways her mother has to stop her father from doing the same. Her grandmother and Princess Rhaenyra had come to yell at one another, and even the kingsguard had come to get involved. Jaehaera’s body is reduced to shaking, fat tears fully sliding down her cheek.
“I’m sorry,” she says quietly between gentle sobs, the sleeves of a dishevelled dress wiping against her face again and again to try and catch all the tears. Only the family beside her hears, so loud were the voices in the room. Her brother and father turn around, with similarly apprehensive faces. “Please, please stop..”
Behind them, from the other side of the room, Aegon sees her in her pathetic state too. She never was the emotional type, and she had oft hoped he liked it for he had been none too different. The unusual petrification on his face makes her blood feel as if it is running dry, and it feels all gone when the dark amethyst of his eyes fall into what she could only call resigned acceptance.
Aegon, her Aegon, comes by his mother and her grandmother, holding Princess Rhaenyra’s arm. “It was my fault. We didn’t mean to… I took it too far,” he finally says. “I won’t come by her any more, Queen Alicent.”
It hurts more than anything else he could’ve said.
Her mother pushes their father aside to cloak her in an embrace. Jaehaera can only tremble and sob against her mother’s robe.
The room grows silent as Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent agree to not tell The King or all else of the incident; so ill had been King Viserys, it had not been worth ailing her grandfather further with this issue when he had been on the brink of passing.
All is to be forgotten, and cast away. Jaehaera’s puffy eyes lift from her mother’s shoulder, and catch his gaze one last time before he leaves. He tries to mouth something, but is pushed by his family out of the room.
Jaehaera sinks against her mother again. Even if she banishes the days in the green Kingswood from her thoughts, the scent of the campfire charring wood black will live in her dreams.
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